Curiosity

An artist's rendition of the planetary rover 'Curiosity' being lowered
to the surface of Mars in the Gale Crater by the 'sky crane' (NASA)

In the early hours of the morning, the NASA exploratory vehicle, Curiosity, landed successfully on the surface of Mars.

Curiosity is by far the largest of the spacecraft landed on another planet and required enormous engineering challenges to be overcome.

Congratulations to the team of NASA engineers and scientists that have succeeded in this tremendous technological achievement.

Absolutely thrilled that this extremely complicated landing manoeuvre has been completed and that Curiosity is sending back data from Mars.

Ellipse showing approximate location of Curiosity in the Gale Crater (Nasa and Wikipedia)

Hopefully, all rover onboard systems are functioning and we can look forward to great science from this billion dollar investment in solar system exploration.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=14661&media_id=149974611

First image returned from Curiosity on the surface of Mars (NASA)